


Luminous Beings

by solikerez



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:22:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8485660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solikerez/pseuds/solikerez
Summary: The lights are out in the city.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Applesith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Applesith/gifts).



> For the lovely @applesith's birthday!

The lights are out in the city.

But here, where the sea meets the sky and mountains loom over the brimming waters, the world is alive, humming and chirping and buzzing and dusted with the gentle, all-encompassing touch of the pale moonlight.

It was a tug that led her here, stowing away in the dead of the night from the bustle of Maz Kanata's castle. " _Go, Rey. You are so close to finding what you seek_ ," Maz had said, knowing eyes urging Rey on. On and on, always forward. Never looking back.

She does look back when a branch snaps behind her, and suddenly the noises of the forest are far too much, far too distracting. Caged by mountains and trees and sea and sky and pale moonlight. She feels a presence she hasn't felt in months, and it oozes, seeps, and slithers all at once, like a creature that only bares it's teeth in months. She's trapped, frozen and struggling, in its grasp. A mask glints silver through the thick brush.

How quickly such a great big world can become a prison.

"Come out, and face me where I can see you, at least. Don't be a coward." There is silence, until a dark form rises and takes form before her eyes. "And take your mask off. I want- I want to see-"

She holds her tongue as she hears the pneumatic hiss of his helmet being lifted from his head. Her lips part as she sucks in air, taking him in. Eyes travel up and up and up, tracing scarred flesh marring a peppered face. Her eyes meet his furrowed brow and the scar tapers to a stop. He didn't heal it, after all.

"Let me go, Kylo Ren."

"And how do I know you won't escape if I do? You've done it once before." He steps toward her, a tumultuous mix of barely masked eagerness and trepidation. His hold on her slips for a moment when she flinches, a moment of weakness. Slipping back into their old ways, of the hunter and the hunted.

"I came here, didn't I? Against every better judgement, I came here, to you. Is that not enough?" His gaze flies down to hers, studying her. The invisible ties that bind her fall away slowly.

"Thank you."

"I called you here to warn you. The Supreme Leader has been tracking you. There's someone on the inside, someone you cannot trust. Listen to me, Rey, you need to watch your back."

_Rey_ , he had called her. Not scavenger. The name is too soft falling from his lips.

"Why are you telling me this? Why are you even giving me a chance? You're supposed to hate me. I mean, look what I did to you..." She trails off, taking a bold step toward him and bringing a warm hand up to the scar across his face, trailing down to the his neck until it's buried beneath his cowl. Rey feels the breath hitch in his throat, ans she lets her mind flit out to brush against the heavy, dormant bond that lies between them. She breathes life into it, coaxes it from its slumber, and pressed it gently toward him.

_Open up, Kylo Ren._

She'd learned to do this in the early days, when the burns from his saber were still fresh and the memory of Starkiller Base splitting open between them still weighed heavy on her mind. She'd learned to watch this bond, the leaden string that lies between them no matter where they go, and to lean on it. She'd learned to fear it, in the nights when her dreams were not her own, and phantom pains crept their way through her body, up her limbs, into her head. She'd learned to leave it be, when his end would shut off completely, a bridge drawn up and blocking the other side.

Right now, the bridge comes crashing down, and out spills a hurricane, a tumultuous tempest of overwhelming emotions, of anger and heartbreak and fear. She sees him on his knees on a black marble floor, hood down and mask abandoned. She sees the cuts across his palms and the sweat-slicked hair and the cruel twist of the words _how does it feel to have blood on your hands, boy_?

She blinks and sees the glassiness of Han Solo's eyes as he plummets, and hears the chant of _The Supreme Leader is wise, the Supreme Leader is wise, the Supreme Leader is wise._

She hears the hum of a spirit wiser than years, whispering _luminous beings are we, not this crude matter_ , to a boy afraid of falling to the dark.

She closes her mind to the man plagued by voices, and revels in the silence of being able to escape. Kylo Ren's eyes look like those of a frightened child and a man who had lived to see too much.

"I am warning you, because you don't deserve this. You don't deserve to live your life haunted like this. This is what Snoke will do to you." His face looks resigned, as if he knows that it is much too late to hope that he could escape from Snoke as well. "Now Rey, you must go, and I must too."

"What? Wait-" She shouts at him as he turns away, striding toward his mask lying in the dust. She grasps his arm and he halts, looking up at her. "You don't have to go back there, to them. To him. There's light in you, there must be."

Its with a sad smile that he gently removes her hand and stands up. "I know. We're luminous beings, you and I. The difference is, I had my chance to leave, and instead, I carried on with blood on my hands. This is the choice I made. I must see it through."

He turns to leave, pushing through the brush, and she follows. She follows at every twist and turn and bend until she tires of it, and lets herself lose him to the night.

She makes her way to the place where two cliffs overlook the brimming waters where the sea meets the sky and the world is alive, humming and chirping and buzzing and dusted with the gentle, all-encompassing touch of the pale moonlight. Here, she allows herself to forget the bond and Kylo Ren and the leaden weight between them. She lets herself forget about it all. But the escape is fleeting, because the sun soon rises up over the trees, and day comes again, inevitable as the Force itself.

The lights are on in the city, and Rey rises, and does not look back.


End file.
